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Banquet Speech

Joseph E. Murray's speech at the Nobel
Banquet, December 10, 1990

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of Dr. Thomas and myself I thank you for this honor.
Your recognition of our work on terminally ill patients sends a
world-wide message to clinical scientists that their research is
just as significant as that of fundamental scientists whose work
forms the background of all advances. Let us continue to shorten
the distance from the laboratory to the bedside.

This year's award also pays tribute to the
hundreds of thousands of patients now living healthy meaningful
lives as a result of successful transplantation of solid organs
and dissociated marrow cells. We are indebted to many of those
patients for their unselfishly joining in the research
effort.

There are two other areas of
transplantation in which The Nobel Foundation has been involved.
By establishing and maintaining consistent high standards of
excellence in all of your awards over the past 90 years, you have
been a unique vital force in the transplantation of ideas which
has created what a naturalist theologian has termed a
"noosphere", that broad stream of knowledge encircling and
enveloping the world, analogous to earth's lifegiving
atmosphere.

Finally, on a more personal note The Nobel
Foundation has successfully transplanted some 28 members of our
respective families across the Atlantic Ocean and allowed all of
us, from ages of 75 years to four months, to be part of this
unforgettable, elegant week of friendship, hospitality, kindness
and good-will. This transplant operation has been, I assure you,
completely successful.

Again, on behalf of our families, the
medical institutions which have nurtured us, and especially in
behalf of our patients, we thank you.